anthracitecl

iTrader: (7)

Hi guys! This thread is sort of diy thread for door handle led. It's not done yet, but will be done soon or later. It will be little slow progress. I don't have much of free time recently.

First, English is my 2nd language. I'm not that good in English like you guys. That is one of the reason why i don't post when it comes to detailed discussion. If you don't understand what i say, just let me know. I'll try my best. I hope you guys don't have problems.

ok. My wifey has e90 and it has door handle led from factory. I loved it when i saw it first time. I've wanted to do this mod for a long time. I finally decided to tackle this mod on my TL. I wanted oem look and reliability. She bought her e90 back in 2005 and hasn't had any issues with door leds. so that tells me good reliability. so i purchased them from BMW. It cost me around $200.00 for all 4 corner. I know it's little pricey, but i think it worth IMO.

I took plenty of pictures from removing door panels. so i'm just gonna post them. I hope you guys don't mind.

You'll definetely need dremel tool for this.

Here's a pic of parts. The last 3 digit 313 is left(driver) side and 314 is right(passenger) side.




so here it goes on left front door.

There are 4 philips screws to remove door panel.

Remove this cover and remove 2 screws.





Remove another one on edge. Mine was stripped. so i had to grab it from behind with needle nose plier to unscrew.






Remove last screw.



I also removed door light too. I don't think this is necessary.




I think there are about 10 clips you have to pop out to seperate panel from door. sorry i didn't count. You can use your hand or tool. I used tool. I started from bottom edge to top. Once you pop those all out, just lift panel up. Now it's seperate from door,but you still have to disconnect cable and switches.
While you are holding door panel, disconnect cable and unplug all switches to remove door panel completely.






Rotate black knob toward door and lift end of cable up and pull green part out.





Unplug switches. There are prongs that you have to press in(use pocket screw driver or some kind of pick) and pull on harness at the same time. It should come out easy.






This is what it look like without door panel.



Now remove white plastic cover. Use razor blade to remove it. Gently pull plastic cover from top edge while you cut adhesive with razor blade. work your way to the end.





After you remove white cover.



Next is remove door handle cover. There's 8mm bolt that you have to unscrew on back of the door lock cover(right next to the lock cylinder).






Now you can remove door handle cover. Slide cover to the right and it just comes out.






Here's pic of driver's front and rear difference.





Looks like it needs quite a bit of dremel work..







That's all for now. I won't be able to continue progress till this weekend .
Hopelly next week.

story.customz

Wow I would never attempt this, but I'm stoked to see the end result. Good luck OP, looking forward to the updates!

guitarplayer16

iTrader: (8)

Awesome write-up so far!

Digging your shirt also lol

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

Nice diy, but I've done all these mods alrdy lol and more. I have interior door handle LEDs, exterior door handle LEDs, under side mirror LEDs, and much more. Good idea using the led panel under the outside door handle though, I want to see how you do it, I had a little trouble when figuring mine out. Kinda sucks that some ppl are copying me now

I have custom 5mm LEDs in my exterior door handles, and I have compared mine to a BMW side by side it's similar in brightness. Your method will be MUCH harder to make look clean, but I'll wait to see your results before judging. I also assume you will be tapping into the dome supervision wire?

I actually thought about using the oem BMW LEDs too but you will soon find out there's no space under the cap to fit the panel... The metal bracket is in the way. Please post back ASAP I want to see how you do it.

Why aren't there any lighting enthusiasts around my area? I would love to meet/talk LEDs with fellow enthusiasts

jkopuffs

i would too, if you do my license plate and handles for me.

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

My license plate lights are rare :P can't buy them anywhere that I know of, I get them through my led supplier

jkopuffs

i gotten a pair of crees of ebay and they were brighter than daylight but it didnt fit back in the housing

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

I had Crees before and yes they are bright but my current ones are brighter and of course they don't fit, mine are all custom, if it was plug and play everyone would do what I did haha

jkopuffs

hooook it uppppp

SharksBreath

iTrader: (33)

how are people copying you?

this wasn't your idea originally, it was many many other car manufacturers idea first.

that's like saying if I install puddle lights on my TL and someone else does then they are copying me. no. they are just doing the same thing I did.

DaeHanMeenGuk

Great post OP! And FWIW, I understood everything that you wrote which means that your English is actually better than you think!

Also, paperboy, if you didn't want people to copy you, you shouldn't have made that DIY on door handle LEDs!

quanaman

iTrader: (4)

Lol awesome progress


Paperboy, 3 posts within 10 minutes? Defensive much?

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

yes, other manufacturers already put it in their cars, but thats simple, you buy a bmw and you get it, all that means is you have money to buy a bmw. I had this door handle led mod a year ago and no one else had it on a TL. I like doing mods that are unique for my car, I did it because I spent time figuring out where things go and took the effort, not like people who just buy a BMW and call it a day.

and also, I made 3 posts because I was on my phone and it's too much work editing previous posts so I just made new ones.


Also, coming from a guy who has 3 ppl admitting they copied him in his sig?

anthracitecl

iTrader: (7)

Thank you sir!

Thank you!!! I was like "huh?" What shirt? Then i scrolled up and noticed reflection on my door.

Thanks, but i'm not copying you. I'm copying BMW.

Yeah it's a lot of work and hard to make look clean. That's why i mentioned a lot of dremel work. I don't mind to do that.

x2

Thank you for kind word sir! I guess you are korean?

Thanks quanaman!!!
Lol

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

okay fine, we both "copied" bmw

you guys all place such bad connotations on the word "copy" like I meant it in a bad way...people need to my words more literally. online posts should always be taken literally because theres no way to tell the context/emotion behind each post.

anyways, good luck with the rest of your progress, cant wait to see the results.

SharksBreath

iTrader: (33)

me thinks you don't grasp what i'm saying.

yeah we all know BMW had these originally, that's fine. that's not the point.

i have angel eyes and an LED strip in my headlights. does that mean i am stealing that idea from BMW and AUDI because they did it first? no. i just like the way they look and wanted them on my car. i'm not taking credit for the idea and design, i am just incorporating it into my own car.

or because i paint my car purple i must be copying Nissan because it's a Nissan color.

oh and people didn't misconstrue what you were implying. you said "it kinda sucks that some people are copying me now" and then you threw a sad face on the end of it. we all know what you meant so please don't insult our intelligence and try to convince ALL of us that we are wrong for thinking you didn't mean it in a negative way.

so you put some LED's in your door handles? does that mean nobody else can?

my signature is funny. it became a running joke around here between a few members and i.

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

how is "it kinda sucks that people are copying me" an insult to the OP, or anyone for that matter? it sucks for ME that my mod isn't unique anymore, I liked being the only TL with this mod, but yea that's not the case anymore, boohoo for me. why does my comment affect any of you guys? I wasn't saying anything that is insulting to any of you guys. Apparently saying that something sucks for me is an insult to you and the rest of the azine community. Great.

you did not know what I meant; like I said in my previous comment, online posts are meant to be taken literally, anyone who does not do so will be misunderstanding stuff. There is no negative meaning behind my post. I hope your "we" doesn't include everyone on azine.

Let's start a poll. If someone says "It kinda sucks that people are copying me," is it an insult? Would you be offended by that comment?

Results:
SharksBreath: Yes
Paperboy42190: No
Feel free to add your name on this list.

big_mac65

SharksBreath

iTrader: (33)

good lord.

i'm backing out of this one.

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

Now lets get this OP topic back on track lol

DaeHanMeenGuk

Yes.




































To OP's question if I was Korean

Brandon Kim

Great!!
Want to see the result as soon as possible

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

OP, everything looks great. I'm anxious to see the final product.



How the hell did this wander so far off course, guys?????

SharksBreath

iTrader: (33)

well, since you asked...I decided to speak my mind after reading that paperboy was visibly upset that OP had copied his idea.

he took it the wrong way, got defensive and tried to back peddle out of his comment by saying that he really didn't mean what he said.

after I realized there was no point in muddying up OP's thread any further, I backed off and became a spectator instead.

I don't think anything got off course. I was just writing how I felt on a public forum and I don't see anything wrong with that. not everything has to be rainbows and sunshine around here all the time.

anthracitecl

iTrader: (7)

Thank you sir! I want to finish this ASAP! I got a lot of work to do! I hope outcome is clean look.

Yeah i saw your signature.

Thanks Brandon!!!

Thanks Steven!!!

TheLowLife

Chad?????

OP that shit is awesome and I'm glad you are taking the time to document as you go.

350

iTrader: (4)

I'm curious to see the final results, good work so far. It might be a good time to do the keyhole delete too since you're modding the rear part of the door handle.

anthracitecl

iTrader: (7)

Thank you! As of right now i did quite a bit of work. Need patience and a lot of dremel work. It's fun though!

Thanks dude! Yeah i already ordered cover for keyhole delete.

McCollins23

Wasn't Rodney one of the first members to do this

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Aaron, I was making a metaphorical statement..........

05_NBP_TL

iTrader: (1)

...I came here for Ramblings. I felt like I was reading an episode of Housewives.









Nice job illustrating everything so far OP.

Aman

Wow, it looks awesome on Rodney's car.

McCollins23

A little too blue-ish for me, but it's awesome looking

anthracitecl

iTrader: (7)

That lolls pretty cool!

Thanks!!

I have to say it looks cool, but little blueish for me too.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Hummm, thats funny. I could have sworn I had already installed and made a DIY of custom LED door handle and door storage pocket LED's before you paperboy ;-) So lets get this straight, you guys are copying me hahahah. I did these LED interior mods on a previous TL-S of mine a couple years ago.
https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-2004-2008-93/sweet-interior-lighting-upgrade-pics-how-830947/

Im not dissing anyones work here or specifically paperboy, but I always wondered why people think that things have to be the brightest possible to be the best. To me, having an ungodly bright license plate light is not necessarily better. My goal for my license plate was to find the closest possible match to cars with OEM LED plate lights. In other words the closest color output and brightness is my goal, not the brightest possible bulb you can rig in there. Thats all just personal opinion though so no one way is the right way.

SharksBreath

iTrader: (33)

...how?

how were you figuratively asserting that this thread wandered so far off course? it looks like you asked a serious question to me. how would one infer your question any differently?

I don't get it.

McCollins23

Did you follow DeathMetal's DIY on that?

TheLowLife

Why did this have to turn into a pissing contest?

McCollins23

Becuase everyone thinks they are first at doing something on a 9 year old car. Most of this stuff was done before most members here were on AZ and it just got lost in the riff raff. But I do commend people on making some new DIY's with the pics still working.

anthracitecl

iTrader: (7)

I don't know... It doesn't matter who did the mod first to me. I appreciate that they give some idea to other people who wants to do same or similar mod. I think people can share informations each other. I think that's what these kind of forum is.
I like the look and just want to do it on my TL. If i'm happy with it, that's all matters IMO.